Single brew beverage machines have become a popular method of preparing drinks on demand, such as coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and other drinks. More recently, single brew beverage machines have been expanded beyond drink preparation and now are being used for preparing food items such as soup and other products that utilize hot water in their preparation.
Typically, a sealed plastic container or pod is provided. The pod is essentially a plastic cup with an open top and a foil seal closing the open top of the cup. The pod contains food or drink product, typically in dry form, and the pod may also contain a filter. For example, if the pod is a coffee pod it will contain coffee grounds and a filter basket sealed within the plastic cup by the foil seal. In order to brew the coffee, the pod is placed into a brewing machine that includes a receptacle sized and shaped to receive the pods. After the pod is placed in the receptacle, the user can initiate a brewing cycle operation of the brew machine. During the brewing process, two needles typically pierce the pod. One needle pierces the top of the pod through the foil seal to introduce hot water into the pod and the other needle pierces the bottom of the pod to provide a drainage path for the water. As the top needle introduces hot water into the pod, it interacts with the coffee grinds to brew the coffee. Filter material is suspended within the pod to provide a brew basket that allows the brewed coffee to pass quickly through the filter while preventing the coffee grounds from exiting through the bottom hole in the pod. Accordingly, a cup of coffee can be quickly and conveniently brewed. Once the brewing is complete, the pod can be removed from the machine and discarded.
There are currently several brewing machine and pod systems available on the market that have corresponding pods and receptacles of different shapes and sizes. Although these pods may vary in terms of shape, size, and construction, they all generally consist of a self-contained pod that includes a pre-portioned amount of brewing ingredients to brew a desired beverage. The pods are typically designed so that they can be punctured so that water can enter the pod, interact with the brewing ingredients to brew a beverage, and then exit the pod.
Pod brewing systems provide many advantages over traditional brewing methods, such as eliminating the need to separately purchase, measure, and add brewing ingredients (e.g., coffee grounds) to a brewing machine. The pods provide everything needed in the correct proportions to brew a desired beverage in a convenient, single use, sealed container. Moreover, once brewing is complete, the entire pod can be removed from the machine and discarded, eliminating the need to directly handle used filters and brewing ingredients.
However, one drawback of pod brewing systems is the need to clean the brewing machine itself, including cleaning and descaling the water injection needles, especially if food items are being prepared using the machine. Typically, cleaning requires purchasing separate cleaning ingredients, applying the correct amount of cleaning ingredients, and manually cleaning the needles. This presents a major inconvenience to the user, especially when one of the biggest advantages of a pod brewing system is convenience. Other methods of cleaning the brewing machine exist, such as adding cleaning solution to the water supply of the brewing machine or providing a pod that contains chemical cleaners. However, these systems are inadequate because the cleaning solution fails to reach all the parts of the brewing machine that require cleaning and/or the cleaning solution is flushed out of the system too quickly in order to effectively clean.
The present invention addresses these and other limitations associated with conventional inspection vehicles and inspection protocols.